Well, potential MetroWest Medical Center patients with cell phones and less urgent health problems can now find out wait times thanks to the latest technology employed by the hospital network: text messaging.

"We enable them to make more informed decisions," CEO Andrei Soran said recently. "It's another step for us communicating with the community about the operations of the hospital."

As in other industries, area hospitals like MetroWest Medical say they want to build personal relationships with customers, by embracing the conveniences of the electronic age and turning their solo acts into partnerships with patients. Most have tapped social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to spur those conversations, though only one other local provider, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, plans to harness mobile phones.

"It's amazing what phones can do these days," said Brian O'Dea, the hospital's director of marketing and public affairs.

By early fall, Newton-Wellesley plans to offer a free application for patients to download to their smart phones, with the software program featuring not only emergency room wait times updated every five minutes, but also searches for doctors and registration for services like lab tests and radiology scans.

"We're very excited about it," O'Dea said. The wait times will also be displayed on the hospital's website, which will continue to offer the registration and doctor search services.

Emergency room texting came to MetroWest Medical last week, after Soran noticed a blurb about a fledgling Florida firm looking to sign up hospitals. He said his hospitals in Framingham and Natick are the first in Massachusetts to offer the program.

The service is meant for patients driving themselves in or coming with a friend or relative, and suffering from urgent complaints like broken bones, cuts, abdominal pain, serious headaches or dizziness - anything not requiring acute care.

An internal MetroWest Medical computer program already calculates and records updated wait times at the network's two emergency rooms, and Soran gave the Florida vendor access to that information. Patients send a message - "MED11," or "63311" - to the texting number 437411, which the hospital encourages them to save in their phones' contact lists.

Last year, the state banned hospitals from turning away ambulances when their emergency departments were too crowded, a practice known as diversion. All area hospitals - not just MetroWest Medical and Newton-Wellesley but also Milford Regional Medical Center and Marlborough Hospital - said wait times are a measurement they continuously monitor and work to improve.

Soran said the new text messaging is not simply a marketing stunt, with the hospital offering accurate wait times and making investments to ensure prompt treatment.

The emergency room at Framingham Union is far busier than the one at Leonard Morse, so MetroWest Medical recently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars doubling the number of triage rooms there. That means patients with less severe cases can be treated more quickly and released sooner, avoiding a backup. The hospital network also uses "lean management" to make the emergency departments more efficient.

"We know our customers are interested in how long their encounter in the emergency room is going to be," he said, adding that he wouldn't be surprised if ambulance crews also took notice of the new texting service.

Soran said he believes MetroWest Medical's low wait times give it a competitive advantage, and that making the numbers easily available will encourage the hospitals and their staff to make further improvements.

"We're confident this challenge will allow us to get even better," he said.